Hisa Play: The Free Android Virtual Stock Market Simulation Game

Two Young Kenyans Jamlick Maina and Vivian Maina are seeking to redefine the way Kenyans can learn how to trade on the Nairobi Stoke Exchange (NSE) and create wealth via a mobile application called Hisa Play.

Hisa Play is a mobile game that offers experience and confidence to the ordinary ‘Mwananchi’ to be able to invest in the securities market. It is a rundown of a stock market simulation game.

The App is a virtual stock simulation game that mirrors the intense trading activities at the NSE and other securities market around the world. It runs on Android platforms and can be played either individually or as a group.

Hisa Play App Landing Page

The game is simple. One downloads the application from the website or Google Play, whereby the user signs up. They get access to various tutorials to learn the game, more about NSE listed companies and monitor their activities on the dashboard. Using virtual currency users can transact counters at the current market value emulating real NSE shares trading.

Users earn points called income which again can be used to trade in or save and remain in the game to the end.

The game has also inbuilt instant chat service which help users to communicate with other players thereby share ideas and compete against each other.

Though downloads are free, the game owners are currently making money on every purchase system generated currency which users pay via Safaricom’s M-PESA service. In-App ads and partnerships with financial institutions such as banks and stock brokers are also other ways of monetizing the game owners use to earn. Currently the game has 400+ paying users from the paid version launched on 29th March 2015. Hisa Play was completed in December 2014 but was later offered for free.

Jamlick and Vivian’s plan for remaining part of 2015 is to visit educational institutions and churches and try getting their members downloas and use Hisa Play. They plan to work closely with the CMA to better provide necessary information to their users and the public at large. Currently they have NSE listed companies but later during the year they want to encompass counters traded in the Uganda and Tanzanian as they plan to roll out across the East African region.

The company currently has six team members: headed by Jamlick Maina, the C.E.O and Vivian
Maina in charge of business development.